210 THE ROAD TO BOLIVIA 



Victoria. After leaving Watlings the steamer treads its way through 

 the Bahama Archipelago, giving the i)assengers a i)anorama of coral 

 islands, where the sponge-fishers live, groves of cocoanut trees, and 

 lonely lighthouses that guide the ship to Colon, which from the deck 

 of a steamer is one of the prettiest towns on the coast, but when 3'ou 

 get ashore is a disappointment and a delusion. The harl)or is in- 

 closed with beautiful hills, whose bright-green foliage never fades, and 

 groups of palms nod lazil}^ to each other as the}' admire the reflection 

 of their own beauty in the water. The palm is the peacock of plants. 

 It is the most graceful tree that grows, but you can't help despising 

 it for being so vain and conceited. 



The railroad company occupies one end of the town with shops and 

 boarding-houses, and at the other end is a grouji of ornate and elaVj- 

 orate gingerbread villas erected for the comfort of the large and lux- 

 urious staff of the canal c()mpan3^ They had clubs, Ijilliard-rooms, 

 libraries, hosi)itals, and everything that a colony of cultured gentle- 

 men could desire except churches. The French christened the canal 

 company Christo Colombo, but the Americans call it Colon. One of 

 the most beautiful and costly and at the same time inappropriate 

 statues to the great discoverer overlooks the entrance to the canal. 

 It was erected by the ex-Empress Eugenie, and represents Columbus 

 in the garb of a student, with a benign expression on his countenance 

 and his hands resting on the tresses of a crouching Indian girl. 



A surprising amount of work has been done by the Panama Canal 

 Company, contrary to an almost universal misconcei)tion that exists 

 among the American people. De Lesseps dug two ditches, each about 

 18 miles in length, from Colon and Panama toward the center of the 

 Isthmus, which are now partially filled with debris. The new com- 

 pany has been working in the interior, cutting through the summit 

 of the continental divide, which here rises only 000 feet above the 

 sea, and, with one exception, is the lowest point of land Ijetween 

 Bering Sea and the Straits of Magellan. The great obstacle that 

 stands in the way of the Panama Canal is the Chagres River, which 

 receives the drainage of a large area and is })erha})S the most depraved 

 and unrelial)le stream in existence. There are two seasons, the wet 

 and the dry. For five months it rains a torrent every da}'^, a rainfall 

 of about four feet a month. The remainder of the year there is no 

 rain at all. Thus for five months the Chagres River is a Niagara, and 

 for seven months a shallow, stagnant stream. The i)roblem is to 

 regulate the rainfall so that it will not wash the canal away in the 

 wet season and leave the upper levels without water in the dry. 



